Production suspended on 3DTVs in wake of falling demand

It was supposed to hail a new era for home entertainment, but now the only two remaining manufacturers have discontinued the product.

LG and Sony have followed Samsung by canning the sets, saying a lack of demand is behind the decision.

There were footballs flying through the living room and giraffes popping in to visit the kids, but a lack of content and awkwardness around those glasses have finally killed 3DTV.

"If the family wanted to sit down and watch some 3D content then they couldn't anyway without going out and spending a few hundred dollars on glasses, so that made it impractical for social situations," technology and business commentator Paul Spain explained.

"They look pretty dumb and then realistically there was only a small amount of content available in 3D."

The excitement around 3D peaked in 2009 with the movie Avatar and its Weta Digital animations.

Even the Queen got on-board, recording her 2012 Christmas message in 3D, but its appeal and popularity never fully caught on for television.

"Avatar got people excited around 3D; it lit things up from a cinema sense, and a lot of people wanted then to take that experience and bring it home, and that certainly helped sell a lot of 3DTVs," Mr Spain said.

Global 3DTV sales have declined each year since 2012, and from 2015 to 2016 their share of total TV sales halved from 16 percent to just 8 percent.

And now as 3DTVs once were, virtual reality is seen as future, so the silly glasses won't disappear completely.